Question

A randomized clinical trial ends with a non-significant finding: treatment and control are not significantly different. However, the investigators notice that there is a significant treatment effect among participants who were smokers (i.e., subjects who, at baseline, reported smoking at least 5 cigarettes / day). Give one argument against pursuing this finding by conducting a new trial limited to people who smoke at least 5 cigarettes / day. Give one argument in favor of pursuing it.

Answer 1

Smoking is one of the major issue.The study is little hypothetical.

But there is a significant decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked by the smoker after treatment .It means the treatment is effective.Which is a positive finding in this clinical trial and favouring it.

However at the same time people even after treatment smoke the same number of cigarettes per day.It means the patient has not improved in the clinical trail which indicates negativity and goes against it.